After being held scoreless a week ago in a soggy loss to Graves County, Madisonville-North Hopkins erupted for 30 first-quarter points on Friday to jumpstart a 51-12 homecoming victory over Muhlenberg County.
Playing without quarterback Kanyon Johnson, the Maroon offense never missed a beat behind a three-touchdown night for Ryder Sandidge.
Sandidge was in the end zone for the first time with less than two minutes played when he took a screen pass from Kirk LaGrange 37 yards to open the scoring.
Sandidge doubled the Maroon’s lead with 6:43 left in the opening quarter on a seven-yard scoring run. Markezz Hightower ran for two-point conversions on both touchdowns to make it 16-0.
It was Hightower’s turn to find the end zone just over a minute later when he broke a 65-yard run up the middle to make it 23-0.
LaGrange got in on the act with a 60-yard scoring run to stretch the lead to 30-0 and put the game out of reach with 3:36 remaining in the first quarter.
Sandidge’s third touchdown came on a six-yard scamper on 4th and goal to trigger a running clock with 9:59 left in the half.
The Mustangs finally got on the scoreboard with a 76-yard scoring strike from quarterback Klay Wilken, but the two-point try was unsuccessful for a 37-6 score.
Hightower added his second TD with 2:50 to go in the half on a nine-yard run on 1st and goal. Noah Mays’ extra point was good, giving the Maroons a 44-6 lead at the halftime break.
A Sandidge interception on the Mustangs’ first play from scrimmage in the second half and a nine-yard TD run by Louie Ampry provided the Madisonville highlights in the third quarter.
Mays, also a standout for the Maroons’ soccer team, was 5/5 on extra-point attempts.
The final points of the night belonged to Muhlenberg. Brayden Baskerville caught an 18-yard pass in the end zone with 11:02 left in the game.
Muhlenberg slipped to 1-6 with its third-straight defeat. The Mustangs are winless in the district at 0-3.
Madisonville improved to 5-2 ahead of a week off before traveling to Apollo for another district matchup on October 18. The Maroons are now 2-1 in District 1, while Apollo slipped to 1-2 with a 46-28 loss to Graves County on Friday.
